Monoprice MP Mini filament guide ball

thingiverse

I really liked tommytwothousand's filament guide. It looked neat and worked well. Well, so I thought... I noticed a clicking sound with the retractions and reloading. It sounded like a filament jam and became really irritating as the printer is right next to my workstation. The clicking was caused by the ball not fitting snugly in the socket, an attribute caused by printing the whole thing in one print. While being very impressive that this could be done, the design failed because form over function ain't good for a working part. So I made a version that prints in two parts for a tighter fit. Both parts require some post-production with fine sandpaper. You'll need to sand the ball smooth and also the inside of the socket. How much depends on the Z banding of your printer. Push the ball into the rear of the socket as I've made that opening a smidge larger. You can push it in from the front if you're feeling like a rebel. If you sand it really smooth and find it is too loose in the socket, the second ball is 0.1mm larger diameter, indicated by a small depression on one of the faces. I've been using my prototype for four days now, and not a single click has occurred. Enjoy!